The aim of this project is to test the hypothesis that smooth muscle cells from patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis induce expression of CD1d on intestinal epithelial cells, which in turn leads to an inappropriate inflammatory response. We propose to determine if certain candidate cytokines are responsible for the upregulation of CD1d, which is an antigen-presenting MHC-like protein. Supernatants from co-cultures of patient (and control) smooth muscle cells and an intestinal epithelial cell line are sent to the immunomodulation core lab for analysis.